SEVERE WEATHER: TORNADO WATCH LIKELY May 24 2017

[Todd H]

What I'm saying is that, for whatever reason, radio and TV meteorologists seem to over-play storms and, as such, what was once called, and recognized as a regular storm is now more regularly called a severe storm. If every storm is a severe storm then "severe storm" loses it's meaning. There's nowhere to really go when that happens. You don't have a good way of relaying an actual severe storm to the public because you've called everything severe. At the same time, the public associates "severe storm" with a normal storm because it's such an overused term and tend not to be as cautious as they should be when an actual severe storm is about to hit.

As a 20+ year veteran storm chaser I'm gonna go ahead and tell you that you could not be more wrong about what makes a thunderstorm severe. A severe thunderstorm is simply a storm that meets one or more of these three criteria: contains hail one inch or greater, has wind gusts exceeding 50 knots, or is producing a tornado (spotted or radar indicated). There's nothing arbitrary about labeling a storm severe at all.

 

[Brad Bishop]

As a 20+ year veteran storm chaser I'm gonna go ahead and tell you that you could not be more wrong about what makes a thunderstorm severe. A severe thunderstorm is simply a storm that meets one or more of these three criteria: contains hail one inch or greater, has wind gusts exceeding 50 knots, or is producing a tornado (spotted or radar indicated). There's nothing arbitrary about labeling a storm severe at all.

I think you're agreeing with me but we're getting lost in what each of us are focusing on. I'm not arguing the official definition but what is reported.

I have no disagreement with you with regards to what makes a storm severe. I didn't know the specifics but more lay-mans terms/thoughts on it, but what you describe sounds like how I would characterize a severe storm.

What I'm saying is that whenever any sort of storm rolls through an area, and I've noticed it for a good 20+ years now, it's labeled "severe" by local (and the location really doesn't matter as I've lived all over the USA) news reporters.

I've found NOAA to be pretty reliable with their usage of "storms" vs "severe storms" but nearly every time something slightly more than rain comes through the local newscaster will say, "severe storms," and these "severe storms" don't meet the definition, from what you wrote above, of what a severe storm is. They, the local news folks, label a regular storm as "severe".

The local news basically goes:
cloudy -> rain -> SEVERE STORMS (take cover!)
It's extremely rare when they say, "some storms may move through."

 

[Cmdr_Crimson]

 

[Todd H]

I think you're agreeing with me but we're getting lost in what each of us are focusing on. I'm not arguing the official definition but what is reported.

I have no disagreement with you with regards to what makes a storm severe. I didn't know the specifics but more lay-mans terms/thoughts on it, but what you describe sounds like how I would characterize a severe storm.

What I'm saying is that whenever any sort of storm rolls through an area, and I've noticed it for a good 20+ years now, it's labeled "severe" by local (and the location really doesn't matter as I've lived all over the USA) news reporters.

I've found NOAA to be pretty reliable with their usage of "storms" vs "severe storms" but nearly every time something slightly more than rain comes through the local newscaster will say, "severe storms," and these "severe storms" don't meet the definition, from what you wrote above, of what a severe storm is. They, the local news folks, label a regular storm as "severe".

The local news basically goes:
cloudy -> rain -> SEVERE STORMS (take cover!)
It's extremely rare when they say, "some storms may move through."

Then your local weather folks have no clue what they are doing because I have never seen that happen. I've worked hand in hand with local weather folks in my area and they would never call a storm severe unless an official warning was issued by the National Weather Service.

 

[ToTBellHop]

Then your local weather folks have no clue what they are doing because I have never seen that happen. I've worked hand in hand with local weather folks in my area and they would never call a storm severe unless an official warning was issued by the National Weather Service.

That's my experience as well. They will say "the area is under a severe thunderstorm watch." Now they may then say, "There is the potential for some severe storms today" and they may never appear, but that's the nature of a watch. I've never heard a meteorologist use the term "severe" to describe potential storms without a watch or warning in place. If anything, I feel they downplay whenever I'm in Central Florida. For example, "we have a 30% chance of storms this afternoon and some may have thunder and strong winds." Given the rain chance, I'm not surprised when some days I'm out in a downpour, others nothing. I may even see sun at Epcot and then parkhop to MK and hear that they had intense downpours that never made it to Epcot. I never find them to be terribly alarmist when talking about typical weather. That's how I know to take them seriously when they say the atmosphere is "particularly unstable" like it was yesterday.

Trees don't come down on cars daily in the summer at WDW. If they did, there'd be no trees lining the parking lots.

 

[ford91exploder]

http://forums.wdwmagic.com/attachments/img_9605-jpg.206783/
WDWtraveler posted this and other pictures in DHS parking lot remodel thread from 3:30 today.

Definitely an unmagical day for some unlucky people in DHS today...

 

[ford91exploder]

I'm not saying that there aren't severe thunderstorms or that what hit Florida this past week wasn't severe. Nor am I saying that weather doesn't change and something that was forecast to be severe didn't fizzle out. I also recognize the advancements in technology with respect to meteorology.

What I'm saying is that, for whatever reason, radio and TV meteorologists seem to over-play storms and, as such, what was once called, and recognized as a regular storm is now more regularly called a severe storm. If every storm is a severe storm then "severe storm" loses it's meaning. There's nowhere to really go when that happens. You don't have a good way of relaying an actual severe storm to the public because you've called everything severe. At the same time, the public associates "severe storm" with a normal storm because it's such an overused term and tend not to be as cautious as they should be when an actual severe storm is about to hit.

Not every meteorologist does this. Kirk Mellish, in Atlanta, is actually pretty good about being honest about it, IMO. Others on both TV and radio tend to overplay it, and this isn't just limited to Atlanta.

Just having some lightning and thunder does not make a severe storm. Again, I'm not specifically talking about yesterday which, from the looks of it, was a severe storm.

Severe Storm is a techncal term

 

[Dave Z]

We were at EPCOT, American Adventure went the rains came down, lasted about 20 minutes, then a just a light mist.